This is us

"Know that the Lord is not giving you this land because you are righteous, for you are a stubborn people". Deuteronomy 9:6.

Consider this...

"Out of all the vaccines I have taken in my life: Tetanus, small pox, polio etc., never before have I seen so much confusion over a vaccine that says I have to wear a mask, and socially distance even when fully vaccinated. Apparently I could still contract or spread the virus even when fully vaccinated. Never had to have a double shot, never been bribed by establishments to take the vaccine in order to win a car, cash, or other prizes. I never had to worry about cardiac issues and/or blood clots and sadly more, I didn’t have to worry about death. I was never judged if I didn’t take it. I was never discriminated against for travel or other regular services. The vaccines I have listed above never told me I was a bad person for not taking it, or taking it for that matter. I have never seen a vaccine that threatened the relationship between a family member or a close friend. Never seen it used for political gain and never seen it used to persuade children in favour of free ice cream or teenagers going into a night club. I have never seen a worry about a mix and matching and yet told it’s OK to do it one day and not the next and on and off again. "I have never seen a vaccine threaten someone’s livelihood, job, school, etc. I have never seen a vaccine that allows a twelve year old’s consent to supersede his/her parent’s consent. So after all I have said, can someone tell me how on God’s green earth I am a racist or conspiracy theorist. Non educated, non researched because I am not willing to take this vaccine. And the clinical trials will not be over for at least two years from now. Finally, after all the vaccines (shots) I listed above, I have never seen a vaccine like this one that discriminates, divides, and judges a society such as this one. So much information is censored, deleted and removed from the internet. So many doctors, scientists, are censored and forbidden to speak out or ask legitimate questions when what is being allowed or not allowed does not make sense. This sure is one powerful vaccine. IT does all of these things that I have mentioned and yet? It doesn’t do what all the other vaccines that I have mentioned earlier were designed to do. That is to fight off “COVID”, a virus with a natural recovery rate of 99% thanks to our miraculous immune system!"           N. Lawrence. (On You Tube).

So, here's my opening question - does this kind of questioning seem reasonable to you? Haven't you asked yourself similar questions in these past 18 months about all manner of events?

As one writer in the telegraph noted today: "Frankly, the government must share the blame for encouraging this silly anxiety neurosis. If you close the schools, empty the hospitals of the elderly and say we must stay home or die, it’s no wonder people start getting crazy. Whitehall officials were gobsmacked at how much compliance there was to the stay-at-home order, with Brits much more ready to do as we were told than folk elsewhere. Clearly, the government overplayed its hand by a country mile, and is now paying the price" (Robert Taylor).

So, there it is in a couple of paragraphs - our present world unpacked and shown to be wanting in the extreme in respect to what should really matter, and yet, and here's where it hurts the most - the church remains either silent or complicit in it all!

Not that there aren't a handful of voices of resistance (I'm grateful to all of you), but these are working almost entirely outside of the 'official' voices of authority.

Why should that be? Why is it that, in spite of numerous and continual "ripples" (perhaps that should read holes) appearing in the narrative of the consensus, that Christianity has almost entirely resounded with the message that we shouldn't seek to rock the boat, disturb common opinion or even ask even slightly probing questions about any of this? Why has the church effectively become deaf and dumb to the deeper needs of our present society and, worse yet, seen fit to effectively marginalise and, quite often, expel those who are shocked at such a impoverished response?

Compliance with what can only be defined as 'the world' at this point is disturbing enough, but you have to ask yourself, how often does this particular lesson have to be writ large before the church gets it?

We are now into a second year of ministers and church dignitaries telling us that everything is good, that there isn't really anything to be that concerned about, and that we will - at some point - get to a place where society is as it should be. Well, what that clearly means now is that everyone (whatever their age) will be "vaccinated" continually (boosters are certainly on the way), continue taking numerous other measures for long periods for the year, and maintain an on-line digital approval to gain access to, well, everything that matters. The Papacy got on board with all of this today stating that Roman Catholics must have been jabbed to engage in clerical activity, and how 'good' Catholics must do so to acquire what is right and good for society. Universities and Colleges are actively producing demarcation systems so those non vaccinated can be identified (and excluded) visually. Pfizer are preparing to gain authorisation for the jabbing of the next batch (5-11 year olds) in America, and are already prepping the case for children as young as two.

Those who won't conform are being marginalised, excluded and continually identified as 'refuseniks' or worse - as if the concerns and issues they had raised about all of this are without any merit, purely because they are muted from the mainstream as irrelevant.

It's time we took the Lord's words above to the children of Israel very seriously.

Their best was, quite simply, not going to take them anywhere.

The reason they were delivered, cared for, forgiven, made victorious, and gained an inheritance, had nothing to do with their virtues! The reason God shows such aid is purely because they were, by nature, without help - incapable of making it in any meaningful sense of the term. Worse than that, their inherent stubbornness would have excluded them entirely from being valuable, were it not for the fact that the Lord had chosen to make them so.

Where does that leave us?

In exactly the same position: "you were dead in trespasses and sins, following the prince of the power of this world, and the course of those who walk in disobedience"(Ephesians 2). Redemption changes that through another's righteousness (Romans 3:21) but for us, life now is a constant dying to self to live in what has been provided (see Romans 6 & 7).

Given that's the case, why would we expect the world to be right when it comes to how Christians should behave in respect to their worship, church-going, doing good, or in what is required to be moral in respects to the world around them? Why would we think that this is possible in respect to this present moment any more than it has been in the past, when these very powers and agencies have been the means whereby God's people have suffered, been killed, and continually excluded from life in general?

I keep hoping that others will wake up to the tissue of lies we have been asked to believe about so much - that they would see the poison that is being injected into the very marrow of what we are being told should now define us - but what is evidenced in the majority of cases is sheer negligence.

The days have been trying, to say the least, but all the evidence shows they are about to become much harder.

Come, says the preachers and the Prophets, let us return to the Lord!